Science and technology in Iran

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COVIran Barekat first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use in the Middle East[1]

international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006.[citation needed] In recent years, the growth in Iran's scientific output is reported to be the fastest in the world.[2][3][4]

Science in ancient and Medieval Iran (Persia)

Beginning in ancient times Persia has been a center of scientific achievement and was often the conduit of knowledge from China and India in the East to Greece and Rome in the West. Persian-speaking scholars have been active in furthering knowledge in fields of science and technology, such as astronomy, chemistry, anatomy, biology, botany, cosmology, mathematics, engineering, and architecture.[5] Science in Persia evolved in two main phases separated by the arrival and widespread adoption of Islam in the region.

References to scientific subjects such as natural science and mathematics occur in books written in the

Pahlavi
languages.

Ancient technology in Iran

The Qanat (a water management system used for irrigation) originated in pre-Achaemenid Iran. The oldest and largest known qanat is in the Iranian city of Gonabad, which, after 2,700 years, still provides drinking and agricultural water to nearly 40,000 people.[6]

Iranian philosophers and inventors may have created the first batteries (sometimes known as the Baghdad Battery) in the Parthian or Sasanian eras. Some have suggested that the batteries may have been used medicinally. Other scientists believe the batteries were used for electroplating—transferring a thin layer of metal to another metal surface—a technique still used today and the focus of a common classroom experiment.[7] However, due to the absence of electrodes on the exterior of the pot, and the lack of records of electroplating at the time, most archaeologists believe it is not a battery, and is more likely a ritual or storage object.[8][9]

Windwheels were developed by the

Babylonians c. 1700 BC to pump water for irrigation. The horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Greater Iran during the 9th century.[10][11]

Mathematics

Abdolrahman Sufi
's Depiction of Celestial Constellations

The 9th century mathematician

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi created the logarithm table, founded algebra and expanded upon Persian and Indian arithmetic systems. His writings were translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona under the title: De jebra et almucabola. Robert of Chester also translated it under the title Liber algebras et almucabala. The works of Kharazmi "exercised a profound influence on the development of mathematical thought in the medieval West".[12]

The

Persian[13][14] scholars who lived and worked in Baghdad. They are known for their Book of Ingenious Devices on automata and mechanical devices and their Book on the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures.[15]

Other Iranian scientists included Abu Abbas Fazl Hatam, Farahani, Omar Ibn Farakhan, Abu Zeid Ahmad Ibn Soheil Balkhi (9th century AD), Abul Vafa Bouzjani, Abu Jaafar Khan,

Ghiasseddin Jamshidi Kashani
.

Medicine

The practice and study of medicine in Iran has a long and prolific history. Situated at the crossroads of the East and West,

Persia was often involved in developments in ancient Greek and Indian medicine; pre- and post-Islamic Iran have been involved in medicine as well. The study of medicinal plants and their effects on humans has been an age-old tradition in Persian-speaking lands.[16] This publication, written by two commanding officers in the Muhammadzai Pashtun tribal confederacy during the Barakzai period (1826–1973), is a lithographic printing of a pharmacology.[17] The Iranian history can be traced back 2553 years. Pasargad is the oldest school of medicine in Iran. A university established during the Sassanid dynasty within the province of Ardabil, Jondi Chapour University, which was one the biggest institutions for science and higher education in medicine, philosophy, and pharmacology.[18] The importance and advancements of Iran's transplantation achievements should be discussed as it displays the use of all scientific components, for instance biology, with the help of other sciences, for collectively performing transplantation. This surgery involves the transfer of tissue or an organ from one part of a person's body to another.[18] early information on anatomy, physiology and pathology using animal models is found in the Babylonian Talmud[19]

For example, the first teaching hospital where medical students methodically practiced on patients under the supervision of physicians was the

Persian Empire. Some experts go so far as to claim that: "to a very large extent, the credit for the whole hospital system must be given to Persia".[20]

The idea of xenotransplantation dates to the days of Achaemenidae (the Achaemenian dynasty), as evidenced by engravings of many mythologic chimeras still present in Persepolis.[21]

From: Mansur ibn Ilyas: Tashrīḥ-e badan-e ensān. تشريح بدن انسان (dissection of human body). Manuscript, c. 1450, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Canon of Medicine by Avicenna
.

Several documents still exist from which the definitions and treatments of the headache in medieval Persia can be ascertained. These documents give detailed and precise clinical information on the different types of headaches. The medieval physicians listed various signs and symptoms, apparent causes, and hygienic and dietary rules for prevention of headaches. The medieval writings are both accurate and vivid, and they provide long lists of substances used in the treatment of headaches. Many of the approaches of physicians in medieval Persia are accepted today; however, still more of them could be of use to modern medicine.[22]

During the 7th century the Achaemenian dynasty was the major advocate of science. Documents indicate that condemned criminals' bodies were dissected and used for medical research during this timeframe[19] In due course, Persians' methods of gathering scientific information would undergo a major change. In the aftermath of the conquest of Islam, Muslim armies destroyed major libraries, and as a result, Persian scholars were deeply concerned as knowledge of the fields of science had been lost. Persians also prohibited the use of human anatomical dissection by Muslim medical practitioners for social and religious reasons.[19] Persian literature was translated into Arabic for approximately two centuries to preserve the surviving Persians literature, which also indirectly served to conserve Persian history.[19]

In the 10th century work of

Persia
.

Later in the 10th century,

Abu Bakr Muhammad Bin Zakaria Razi is considered the founder of practical physics and the inventor of the special or net weight of matter. His student, Abu Bakr Joveini, wrote the first comprehensive medical book in the Persian
language.

After the

Sassanid Jundishapur's medical academy. Rhaze noted that different diseases might have similar signs and symptoms, which highlights Rhazes' contribution to applied neuroanatomy. The differential diagnosis approach is still used in modern medicine. His music therapy was used as a means of promoting healing and he was one of the first people to realize that diet influences the function of the body and the predisposition to disease[19]

An idea of the number of medical works composed in Persian alone may be gathered from Adolf Fonahn's Zur Quellenkunde der Persischen Medizin, published in Leipzig in 1910. The author enumerates over 400 works in the Persian language on medicine, excluding authors such as Avicenna, who wrote in Arabic. Author-historians Meyerhof, Casey Wood, and Hirschberg also have recorded the names of at least 80 oculists who contributed treatises on subjects related to ophthalmology from the beginning of 800 AD to the full flowering of Muslim medical literature in 1300 AD.

What is known as Avestan or Zoroastrian medicine, the essence of which has been gleaned from the extant religious texts, is an extension of the ancient Aryan World View in which prevention of mental and physical illness was of paramount importance and was achieved through religious observance of moral purity and physical hygiene. These important tasks were supervised by the religious high cast Mobeds and Magi priests and in case of illness the reading of religious mantras and prescription of herbal medications were administered by the same Magi healers.[24]

There were strict admonitions against pollution of flowing water and the air was to be kept purified by burning of wild Rue and Frankincense. The soil was to be cultivated with food crops and fruit trees and kept free of putrefying matter and fire, a symbol of purity of the Deity, kept in eternal flames and free from contamination.[24]

There was however a major leap in Iranian medicine during the Sassanian era from the 3rd to the 7th centuries C.E., when the most famous centre of medical learning in Iran was the Gondeshapur Hospital. Again a dearth of primary written sources regarding the medical activities in this centre makes definitive statements difficult.[24]

Aside from the aforementioned, two other medical works attracted great attention in medieval Europe, namely

Abu Mansur Muwaffaq
's Materia Medica, written around 950 AD, and the illustrated Anatomy of Mansur ibn Muhammad, written in 1396 AD.

Modern academic medicine began in Iran when Joseph Cochran established a medical college in Urmia in 1878. Cochran is often credited for founding Iran's "first contemporary medical college".[25] The website of Urmia University credits Cochran for "lowering the infant mortality rate in the region"[26] and for founding one of Iran's first modern hospitals (Westminster Hospital) in Urmia.

Iran started contributing to modern medical research late in 20th century. Most publications were from pharmacology and pharmacy labs located at a few top universities, most notably Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Ahmad Reza Dehpour and Abbas Shafiee were among the most prolific scientists in that era. Research programs in immunology, parasitology, pathology, medical genetics, and public health were also established in late 20th century. In 21st century, we witnessed a huge surge in the number of publications in medical journals by Iranian scientists on nearly all areas in basic and clinical medicine. Interdisciplinary research were introduced during 2000s and dual degree programs including Medicine/Science, Medicine/Engineering and Medicine/Public health programs were founded. Alireza Mashaghi was one of the main figures behind the development of interdisciplinary research and education in Iran. During this time period, which coincided with the establishment of the Code of Hammurabi (the sixth king of the first dynasty of Babylon, 1955–1912 BC), surgery became common practice. This code imposed severe penalties on surgeons who made mistakes during surgery. Medical and surgical practices might have developed more realistic approaches to prevent or minimize iatrogenic errors if such strict laws had been enacted, with the practitioner then being punished.[19]

Astronomy

An 18th century Persian astrolabe

In 1000 AD,

Biruni wrote an astronomical encyclopaedia that discussed the possibility that the earth might revolve around the sun. This was before Tycho Brahe
drew the first maps of the sky, using stylized animals to depict the constellations.

In the tenth century, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi recorded the first known reference to the Andromeda galaxy, which he called a "little cloud".[27]

In 830, the Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi wrote the first major work of Muslim astronomy. In addition to presenting tables covering the movements of the Sun, Moon and the five planets, Ptolemaic concepts were introduced into Islamic science through this work.[28]

Biology

plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.[29]

Medieval Islamic agronomists including Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr described agricultural and horticultural techniques including how to propagate the olive and the date palm, crop rotation of flax with wheat or barley, and companion planting of grape and olive.[30]

Chemistry

The authors of the alchemical texts (c. 850−950) attributed to

sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) to the category of chemical substances known as 'spirits' (i.e., strongly volatile substances). This included both naturally occurring sal ammoniac and synthetic ammonium chloride as produced from organic substances, and so the addition of sal ammoniac to the list of 'spirits' is likely a product of the new focus on organic chemistry. Since the word for sal ammoniac used in the Jabirian corpus (nūshādhir) is Iranian in origin, it has been suggested that the direct precursors of Jabirian alchemy may have been active in the Hellenizing and Syriacizing schools of the Sasanian Empire.[32]

The Persian alchemist and physician

mineral acids by thirteenth century Latin alchemists such as pseudo-Geber.[33]

Physics

Kamal al-Din al-Farisi
's autograph manuscript in Optics, Tanqih al-Manazir, 1309 A.D., Adilnor Collection.

Galileo tried to experimentally prove this.[citation needed
]

Kamal al-Din Al-Farisi (1267–1318) born in Tabriz, Iran, is known for giving the first mathematically satisfactory explanation of the rainbow, and an explication of the nature of colours that reformed the theory of Ibn al-Haytham. Al-Farisi also "proposed a model where the ray of light from the sun was refracted twice by a water droplet, one or more reflections occurring between the two refractions."[citation needed] He verified this through extensive experimentation using a transparent sphere filled with water and a camera obscura
.

Science policy